Nose Flutes

Day 7
Van and I do a video blog every night - I may see if I can upload one because they are super easy to do.
It's weird, hearing Christmas music when it's 90+ degrees outside - the stores have begun playing Mariah Carey and Justin Beiber. Not even the good Christmas music. I wanna hear some Micheal Buble, Barbra Streisand, maybe Kenny G.
Oi - the water was off for more than 2 days - we didn't have bucket showers for 2 days. Which means we were sooooo dirty. I thought I was getting tan. I wasn't.
By the way, that fried bread? It's spelled "Bobakau". It's so good. It's my favourite food here. Auntie makes it sometimes for breakfast and I eat until I feel like a balloon.
We've continued cleaning the church - I've scrubbed so many tiles that I thought my fingers might fall off! And then we painted more and it's nearly done! We finished up some last minute cleaning today in preparation for the opening tomorrow! It's so exciting! We learned a dance with the youth last night, and I feel quite tribal doing it! It involves a lot of clapping and shoulder-rolling. :)
We also visited the hospital the other night. Steph and I were together and we decided to visit the women's ward. Steph spotted one woman and we decided to encourage her. She was so sweet, her name was Alcosita (sp?) and she had diabetes and had left her home island to get treatment. She lost her leg and I think had to do dialysis. She gladly welcomed prayer and we talked to her for almost an hour - she really inspired me - her attitude was incredible in spite of the fact that she was all alone in a hot and dirty hospital for 3 months. I really got an attitude check.
Sarah has become my adoptive One-on-One - we had a lovely date the other day in the corner of the church during work break. She's going to marry a Kiwi and live in New Zealand forever.
I slept outside last night, thinking it would be cooler. It was. But Fijians are noisy. I didn't just hear the dogs last night, but some weird Hindi band playing their nose flutes and drums until 1 am. I will be sleeping inside from now on.
Also - there are "black fijians" and "white fijians". They all look black to me. But after church the other day, we were sitting around with some of the youth, jamming and one girl calls another girl white. I got so confused, I thought she was talkiong about me. Nope. Brown fijians are "white". What does that make me? Transparent? erp.
For those of you who planned on sending me stuff to the Fiji address, if you haven't sent it already, DON'T SEND IT.
I won't get it because I won't be there - I'll be in Suva! If you've sent it already, I should get it.
Bah, sorry my posts are so dry - I don't have much time in the internet cafes!
More to come soon!
Peace out girl scout!

Real Hobbit Feet

If you lovlies want to send me somthing for Christmas -

Hannah Douglass
12 Kama Street
Simla, Lautoka
Fiji

:)
I love presents.

Anywho.
The past couple of days have been sooo interesting. Sleeping in the heat is getting easier, I still want to shoot all of the obnoxious stry dogs, but they tell me that I shall soon be able to tune them out.
We started working on the hall where Pastor Jare's congregation will now meet. Man, it's so dirty - we basically scrubbed for 2 days straight - we scrubbed chairs, walls, floors, toilets, sinks, stairs, everything. And I think all the grime made it's way on me. Which means I GET MORE BUCKET SHOWERS. yay! I'm getting used to them - the water is cold - which can be a blessing or a curse. It's so relieving after our long treks around Lautoka, but quite shocking early in the morning. Sometimes, the landlord turns off the water in the Pastor's house, so we run out of water. Which means we're thirsty and dirty. But the water eventually turns back on, so it's okay.
I'm pretty sure my feet are indefinitely dirty. They will never be nice again. They are so gross, always filthy, covered in dirt and the skin is getting so dry and calloused from all our walking and the glittery pink nail polish on my toenails is almost unrecongnizable, all chipped and brown.
On the bright side, there aren't any mirrors anywhere, so I never know how gross I look. yay. It's kind of crazy, how I have to depend on my team to tell me how disgusting I look.
I've basically stopped really caring how I look, but i know that this humidity is making everyone's skin better, so I'm praying mine does the same! Wanna get rid of acne? Do a mission trip in Fiji! Woohoo.
Haha, reminds me of something that happened the other day -  Van walked in the living room and dejectedly said "I don't know which to charge - my iPod or my camera." There's only one outlet available in the house. #firstworldproblemsinasecondworldcountry
It was funny.
#YWAMhumor

more to come!
Peace out girl scout!

FIJI

Boy oh boy.
So sorry family and friends for not posting in quite a while. I was in denial that I was soon going to be leaving my DTS family forever and I didn't want to talk about it.
I may get around to talking about it one day.
Probably not.
But now, I'm in Fiji! Sitting in an internet cafe, sweating away.
It is super hot here - there's no AC anywhere, but I don't mind it so much.
Let's start with getting here.
It was a very quick 3 hour flight, and met Pastor Jare at the airport (he's Dan's dad!). We drove to Pastor's house, where we unloaded and found our rooms. One example of incredible Fijian hospitality - their family gave up their rooms so we could sleep inside - they sleep on the porch. And then we ate - and ate - and ate. That's all we seem to do is eat eat eat. People always want to feed us more. They say "come come, eat more, come come." Sunday morning when we woke up, we had devos, worship, and then we had Bomacow (sp?). It's fried bread.
SOOOOO GOOD. I want to eat it for the rest of my freaking life.
I'm in love with this place - Jare's family is the sweetest and I am so excited to help him build his church. We're focusing on the youth for this trip - our team is going to be pulling kids off the street and running youth services on SUnday afternoons. We'll also be doing prison ministry, on Wednesday, we'll be ministering to overcrowded men's prisons - chatting, singing, doing one of my favourite skits "Ropes". Man, I can't wait to get started. Mondays are our days off - we'll use that time to rest and fellowship.
We sleep with the windows open, on mats on the floor - if there's a breeze, it's really nice, but our mosquito nets don't do the greatest job of keeping it breezy. I don't sleep with a blanket or sheet or anything, it's so toasty. Also, we bathe using buckets. They're called "bucket baths" - heehee. I don't use conditioner because it takes too much water, but my hair naturally starts conditioning itself, thank goodness. And the humidity's so intense that I don't even worry about how my hair looks. And now I'm so happy i chopped it all off, or else I would be absolutely miserable.
Man, there's so much I want to say, I know this is a pretty dry entry, but I'm running out of time! I'll get around to saying it all when I can!
Love you guys, be blessed!

Fiji Prophie!

So, as most of you know, I’m going to Fiji with the MOST AWESOME TEAM EVA.

Here’s some info:

(ps – I copied most of my info from Steph’s blog – you should check it out - http://adventuresofstephreynolds.blogspot.co.nz/)

 

Leaders:
Dave Remus

From Ontario, Canada, this guy is pretty cool. He’s 19. One of my first impressions of him was finding out that he was doing a weeklong fast. I feel like that pretty much sums it up: He’s strong and well-disciplined, a perfect fit for team leader.

 

Sarah Lowe

She my American girl – or can I say California girl? My first impression of her was that I thought she looked a lot like Emily Osment – you know, the girl that was on Disney Channel? She’s got an absolutely gorgeous voice – we enjoy Civil Wars duets together and she’s the momma of the group – not only because of her age (26), but she’s got quite the momma’s heart.

 

Aleisha Mclennan

Is a crazy Kiwi. My first impression of her crazy dancing during worship. She, like Dave, is also 19 and full of so much life and joy and passion! She’s definitely a driving force in our team, her enthusiasm will be much appreciated! She also has a gift for identifying and connecting with kids – she’s brought 5 or 6 kids to salvation in the past month alone!

 

Students:

Me- Hannah Douglass

Well, if you didn’t know about me, I’m from Franktown, TN, in the U.S. of A. i enjoy singing way too much and I love food. I also love people in general, but I can get cranky if I’m cold, hungry, sick, or surrounded by Debbie Downers. So it’s a good thing I’m going to Fiji, where it’s like 200 degrees everyday, Fijians force you to eat literally tons of food (they’re well known for their hospitality), and no one on my team is a Debbie Downer. It’s gonna be great.

 

Stephanie Reynolds

Affectionately known as “Steph” by all or “Stephy Steph” by myself, this chickadee is the bees knees. She’s from Alberta, Canada and she lives off of rice and carrots because she’s allergic to almost every staple food product. We love to talk about poop together. On a more serious note, she is an incredible songwriter and she’s also like a big sis to me! She is bold and honest, something that will come in super honest on outreach. My first impression of her was her super hip self playing the guitar at King’s Kids.

 

 Bethany Roughton

Better watch out! She’s our other crazy Kiwi. She’s our baby, 17 years old and she’s got a passion and a boldness like no other. Quite the prayer warrior, she loves being in that place with God. She’s quite the comic, always saying the funniest Kiwi things that just make me laugh. She’s a closet musician and has a wonderful new haircut. My first impression of her was her being engulfed in all her lime green bedding. She loves green.

 

Jacob McCormack

From Portland, Oregon, he’s 20 years old and one of the the most fantastic, passionate, and talented musicians I have EVER met. He rocks at piano, he’s a beast at guitar, and he’s got a true heart of worship. He is an angel and always provides great music for my songs – I’d like to think he’s the John Paul White to my Joy Williams. He’s really super obsessed with kitty cats and purrs during worship. Jk – but he is an excellent purrer. My first impression of him was “Poor guy.” Because his airline lost his luggage and he had like a million hour layover in Australia and he missed his birthday because of the international dateline thingy!

 

Jacob Van Zanten

He’s 18, and all the freckles stand for the souls he’s eaten. JK! They stand for all the souls he’s gonna save! This awesome kiddo always makes my day better with his lovely smile and sincere affirmations. He’s got a gift for passionate prayer and speaking that really now starting to reveal itself in his life. From British Colombia, Canada, he has some strange vocabulary like “toque” (beanie) and “ill” (that’s sick bro!), but I’m introducing him to new words like “ya’ll” and “fried chicken”, so it’s okay. He's also the missing member of the boyband, One Direction.

 

What?

Outreach!

The scripture for our team is:

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." (Isaiah 61:1-3)

We will be doing all sorts of things - from street evangelism to door knocking to children's ministry to helping out at churches... the list goes on.

 

Where?

Lautoka. Pastor Jare

Paihia/NZ. Operation Jerusalem.

Kaitaia/NZ. Pastor Graeam

Auckland/NZ. Pastor Trent. C3 South Aukland

 

When?

We will be leaving New Zealand on November 24 and flying to Fiji. We will be in Lautoka working with Pastor Jare. Pastor Jare is Dan's dad. Dan is one of the students on my DTS and he is from Fiji!!!! Our base has been doing outreach with Dan's dad for a long time, and finally Dan was able to come to New Zealand and take part in his own DTS!!! How awesome is that! I am so excited to stay with his parentals for a while! We will be staying in Fiji for about a month. We will arrive back in New Zealand on December 26. So we will get to have a Fijian Christmas! I am so pumped for that!

When we get back we will be volunteering in Paihia with Operation Jerusalem. Paihia on New Years is the place for young people to go and get drunk and party. So we will have a booth, giving out free sausages and water. It will be a super opportunity for us to minister to the youth of New Zealand! Beth is pretty nervous to hang around drunken youth, so pray for her! (And the rest of us too!)

Then we are going to Kaitaia. While there we will be planning and running a children's program. It will be kind of like Vacation Bible School (VBS)

And our last stop will be in south Aukland. This is a rough part of Aukland and we will be doing something at a big church down there called C3. There are lots of street people and prostitutes and stuff like that in that area. During our DTS, we have had 'Hope Cafe' every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during our break in the middle of the morning lecture. There is coffee and cookies and icecream available by donation. All of the money raised goes to the prostitutes in South Aukland. So we will actually get to meet these girls and minister to them! Pray for them

 

Why?

Why not?

Peace out girl scout